Fighting Fish: Packed to the Gills

After testing the water with dream jobs at R/GA and DDB, Benjamin Przespolewski finally took the plunge and set up Fighting Fish, named after the aquatic killers beloved of Bond villains SPECTRE.  Is world domination inevitable?

In the north western suburbs of Paris, Fighting Fish are at each others’ throats. Not that the briefs aren’t coming in or business is slow, but literally, the Siamese freshwater aquarium species – called Betta – circle in small cubic tanks on the window sills at the hybrid, integrated production company as a reminder of the inspiration behind the young start-up. “They’re small and beautiful but very aggressive,” says Benjamin Przespolewski, digital creative director and founding partner at the company. “If you put two together, they’ll kill each other.” The fish was chosen as the logo and name of the company because it is a beautiful icon.

Setting up in 2012 under the Quad umbrella, Fighting Fish Paris was born out of Przespolewski’s vision to create a company modelled on Acne, B-Reel and Unit9. He’s worked in the industry for 12 years, first as an art director at one of the first French digital agencies, Duke Interactive, when new media was just gathering momentum. “Clients were really open and everything was new,” he says. “We won a lot of awards at Duke and I stayed for eight years and became creative director.”

Przespolewski’s dream was to work for R/GA – “with Nike+ and Nike iD, it was the best digital agency in the world” – so he moved to New York to join the agency after a successful interview and stayed for two years. “R/GA is so advanced on new kinds of processes and the way they integrate technology,” he states. “The way they think and develop their projects is very different from others.”

Przespolewski returned to Paris two years ago, when an interesting proposition came up at DDB. Matthieud De Lesseux, who he had worked under at Duke, became president at the agency in 2010. It was the first time the head of a digital company had become head of a traditional ad agency in France.

However, his role at DDB proved unsatisfying: “What was very different was the production side. When I was at Duke I did lots of production myself as a designer and was also directing, and at R/GA it was the same; production was integrated. But at DDB it’s more of the traditional model. They don’t produce internally, so during two years there I worked with the best studios in the world and I was amazed by them,” he adds. “We didn’t have this kind of digital production in France, we have very good traditional production for films, TV and post but when it came to digital production, we weren’t very good.”

Przespolewski admits he likes a good party now and again, and it was at a networking event that he met François Brun, head of commercials at Quad Paris. “I wanted to create a company like B-Reel and he wanted one like Unit9, so we said ‘okay, let’s do a deal’, and that’s how we created Fighting Fish. He told me I’m good at digital and said he had the rest; the guy for events, digital films,  3D mapping... so he actually created the team here.”

The group’s Clichy base is spacious and friendly. There’s traditional TV, animation, post effects and features teams all working within the building and Fighting Fish has access to Quad’s impressive directorial roster. Przespolewski is clear that it’s not a digital arm of Quad, however, and the company does its own business.

Some of the projects it has stamped its name on include a stunning web film for Cartier, Winter Tale; an experiential event for Contrex mineral water – a mix of video mapping and live stunt; an interactive website for Jean Paul Gaultier; and a mobile experience, Golf Challenge, for VW Golf.

The company prides itself on creating a variety of work, which the team feels is essential in this digital age. As Przespolewski says, it’s an exciting yet experimental time: “We receive more and more original briefs, crazy stunts, and most of the time the brief is impossible to produce. Some of the team are only used to doing films and I’m asking them to do interactive stuff or Kinect or mobile. They’re a bit lost, but it’s interesting.”

This little fishy went to market

Currently, Fighting Fish only works with French agencies but Przespolewski would relish the opportunity to work internationally. “For sure we’d like to work with BBH and Wieden; it’s a different market but that would be interesting. I would love to work with an English company. France is a small market and that means small budgets. We will need more ambitious projects, for sure.” One in particular is an upcoming campaign for Perrier, 60 Lives, through Ogilvy Paris. “It’s very ambitious and we don’t have enough briefs like this in France.”

Fighting fish are used for betting in Thailand and there are stories that people have lost their houses on the sparring matches, but Przespolewski’s gamble seems to be paying off.